The global dairy market is estimated at $500 billion with an average annual growth rate of 4%. Bovine milk attributes to a significant portion of the market whereas plant-based alternatives account for $1 billion in the US and an estimated $700 million is estimated for lactose-intolerant milk. Bovine milk is known to have four specific caseins, α-s1-casein, α-s2-casein, β-casein, and κ-casein. Mammal- or mammalian-produced milk is a very complex fluid that includes several thousand components (e.g., if all triglycerides are identified). Mammal- or mammalin-produced milk includes water, variety of different lipids, sugar, a variety of different proteins, and a variety of different inorganic salts and compounds (see, e.g., Boland and Thompson (Eds), Milk Proteins from Expression to Food, Academic Press, 2014). Although mammal-produced milk, such as bovine milk, is considered by many to be an ideal source of nutrition, various milk alternatives to mammal- or mammalian-produced milk (e.g., bovine milk), such as plant- or nut-based milks, e.g., soy, almond, or coconut milk, have been pursued for reasons related to mammal- or mammalian-produced milk's allergenicity, lactose intolerance of certain components, personal preference, and the perceived environmental benefits of a reduced dairy industry.
For example, the environmental impact resulting from dairy effluent can result in significant levels of nitrate which has the potential to contaminate groundwater. Groundwater forms the main source of water supply for many towns and farms where surface water supplies are limited. In the US, half the population relies completely or partially on groundwater, and similar figures are available for Europe (see, e.g., the Victoria State Government Department of Environment and Primary Industries website at www.depi.vic.gov.au/agriculture-and-food/dairy/managing-effluent/dairy-effluent-protecting-groundwater). The presence of foodborne pathogens in milk is due to direct contact with contaminated sources in the dairy farm environment and to excretion from the udder of an infected animal. Outbreaks of disease in humans have been traced to the consumption of unpasteurized milk and have also been traced back to pasteurized milk. The major contaminants usually encountered in milk and milk products include pesticide residues, heavy metals, and aflatoxin M1 (Awasthi et al., Indian J. Public Health 56:95-99, 2012).
Existing dairy milk alternatives, such as soy, almond, or coconut milk fall short both in flavor and in functionality; moreover, a large part of the industrial and cultural significance of dairy milk stems from its usefulness in derivative products, such as cheese, yogurt, cream, or butter. Non-dairy plant-based milks, while addressing environmental and health concerns (and while providing adequate flavor for a small segment of the population), almost universally fail to form such derivative products when subjected to the same processes used for dairy milk.
What is needed, therefore, is a dairy substitute or composition that has desirable flavor and performance characteristics, e.g., a composition that replicates dairy flavors, minimizes foodborne pathogens, and has a lower environmental impact in production, while retaining the ability to be used for derivative or downstream applications of dairy milk and while providing a similar nutritional profile as a mammal- or mammalian-produced milk.